Restaurants in Pakistan
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A
Pappasalli's Italian Restaurant
With an attractive interior, delicious food and courteous service, Pappasalli's is deservedly popular. There are plenty of tempting pasta dishes, including a hearty spaghetti bolognaise, as well as ample other choices such as minestrone and steak Tuscany. For dessert there's a divine tiramisu as well as some glorious ice creams including praline.
reviewed
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B
United Bakery
Bakes excellent cakes, cookies, savoury snacks and fresh bread (loaves and rolls). Chocolate donut/éclairs and sandwiches. Birthday cakes can be ordered here.
reviewed
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Bundu Khan
Next door to Zanzibar, although not as funky, this restaurant still gets the thumbs up. The waiters are obliging and there's pleasant alfresco dining (indoor seating is also available). The Pakistani cuisine is tasty but can be fiery, so request less chilli if your taste buds aren't up for the ride. Alternatively, opt for the Chinese or fast-food offerings, which include chicken honey wings and chicken cheeseburgers.
The 'kids club' will keep your little monsters occupied while you steal some quiet time.
reviewed
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D
Usmania Tandoori Restaurant
One of Quetta's plusher restaurants (with a hard-to-miss orange sign), Usmania has a wide selection of tasty dishes at reasonable prices. We particularly liked the mutton tandoori (Rs 375), a serving big enough for two with bread, salad and raita, washed down with green Pashtun tea. Service is good, and there's a handful of Chinese and Continental dishes if you need a break from local tastes.
reviewed
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E
Café Flo
Run by a Frenchwoman hailing from Nice, and located inside the Alliance Française, Café Flo provides the ultimate Parisian dining experience in Karachi. This restaurant is particularly popular with foreigners living in the city; reservations are essential. Try the divine pâté, the decadent chocolate mousse, the luscious lobster...C'est magnifique!
reviewed
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F
Village Garden Restaurant
Karachi's oldest restaurant, the Village Garden is a pleasant place to sit in the open air and catch a breeze. The menu here is heavy on barbequed meat, plus some tasty karais (food braised with vegetables, served bubbling in its own pan) and the like. The TV in the middle of the restaurant is permanently tuned to the cricket.
reviewed
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Café de Hunza
The KKH has delivered espresso coffee to sip while munching on Hunza walnut cake and reading the newspaper (albeit two days old). Not surprisingly, this venture, which also does muesli and omelette breakfasts and sells books and souvenirs, has hit the spot with travellers and there's now another branch at Zero Point.
reviewed
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Hidden Paradise
This quaint restaurant has a big menu of inexpensive and delicious Hunza dishes; eg haneetze doudo and chapshuro. The cuisine is definitely not haute, but this is a great way to sample local food with friends and enjoy views of Altit and Duikar.
reviewed
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I
Shangrilla
In the Cantonment area, just off Quaid-i-Azam Rd, Shangrilla is a relaxing place to chow down on Multan's finest Chinese cuisine. The menu includes golden oldies such as sweet'n'sour chicken and beef with lemon sauce.
reviewed
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Lasani Gardens
Whips up the usual mix of Chinese and Continental fare. Sweet tooths will savour the 'chocolate overload' ice cream (Rs60).
reviewed
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United Bakery
United Bakery has baked goods of questionable freshness, but also plenty of packaged groceries, drinks etc.
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Tai Wah
Offers à la carte dining in addition to a yummy-looking buffet. The buffet is better value.
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K
Cooco's Den & Café
Set in an eclectic family haveli (traditional mansion), with glorious views of the Badshahi Mosque and environs, the vistas and ambience of this restaurant score slightly higher marks than the food (which is still not at all bad).
The owner, artist Iqbal Hussain, primarily paints portraits of the nautch (dancing) girls of Heera Mandi (Lahore's redlight district), the area in which the haveli is located.
The menu features Pakistani cuisine with traditional favourites and some more-unusual offerings include qeema wala naan (flat bread stuffed with spiced minced lamb) and for dessert, alamghiri laula (a seasonal carrot-based sweet).
Dinner is the most atmospheric time to dine…
reviewed
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Glacier Breeze Restaurant
High above the Highway, with a stairway to tastebud heaven, this excellent restaurant continues to astound travellers with its quality Hunza-inspired fare and incongruous location. Signature dishes include chicken cooked in local herbs, purziyh sahar (paneer with spicy fried spinach) and Hunza apricot chicken. There's even a kids' menu. The apricot cake is divine, and chocoholics will have their prayers answered. And there's real coffee!
The tented accommodation is set up in summer and includes mattresses, sleeping bags, and hot showers. Entrepreneurial chef Ahmed Ali Khan can provide dried and vacuum-packed meals for trekkers, and runs cooking classes (Rs300, at least an…
reviewed
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Gowal Mandi
Near The Mall, and aptly dubbed 'Food Street' by locals, the area called Gowal Mandi is brilliant for a cheap, hearty feed. The fierce competition between the many eateries along this street works to the customer's benefit, with a variety of tasty, good-value Pakistani cuisine. Although some places are open for lunch, the action really begins after sunset when the area is completely closed to traffic; chairs and tables are set up on the street; and the place takes on a festive buzz.
To stave off the bad bugs make sure you stick to food that is cooked in front of you.
reviewed
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Khyber Bazaar
From the Cantonment you approach the Old City along Railway Rd and through Khyber Bazaar, consisting mostly of cheap hotels, kebab stands and carpet merchants (stand around for a few minutes and one will sidle up to you). The city wall and its 16 gates were knocked down in the 1950s but many gates remain in name.
The streets leading south and east from the Rose Hotel have several good (unsigned) Afghan cafés serving rice and kebabs, plus piping-hot Central Asian-style naan, although in the Old City you're never too far from good, filling street food.
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Dumani
Based at Gilgit's top hotel, Dumani has a wonderful vista and a good-value menu with tasty Pakistani, Chinese and Continental cuisine. If you have been scrimping or trekking, this is the place to have a splurge - particularly at the all-you-can-eat buffet lunch (Rs500). Popular barbecue nights (Mon-Sat) commence after 15 May, with locals and nonguests alike enjoying the first-rate food and garden ambience.
Also good value is the high tea buffet on Sunday (15:00 to 18:00) with a great range of salads, hot dishes and desserts. Credit cards are accepted.
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Dumpukht
Named after the cuisine championed by the nawabs (Muslim princes) of Avadh (Lucknow, India) some 300 years ago, this is one of the PC's five fine restaurants. Try the delicious murgh pukhraaj (chicken cooked in yogurt, saffron, Afghan spices and garnished with edible silver paper) - one of the chef's personal favourites. For a midnight snack later, takeaway cakes, croissants, chocolate donuts and other sugary delights are available at the hotel's Pastry Shop.
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Lehri Sajji House
Prime among the group of sajji restaurants clustered in this area, this place could hardly be more basic, with plastic tables and chairs spilling out onto the road. But the sajji is fantastic - great hunks of lamb spit roasted, with crackly skin and sticky fat. It's better if there's more than one of you dining as you get a leg of lamb to yourself; there's also whole chicken cooked in the same delicious way. It's just off Jinnah Rd.
reviewed
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Jammin' Java
Make a beeline for this hip café if you're suffering withdrawal symptoms from lack of a real cup of coffee. There are frothy cappuccinos and lattes, espressos and flavoured coffees. If you've been dragged here by a coffee freak (but aren't one yourself) there are caffeine-free options such as the Hunza High fresh fruit smoothie, as well as light bites. JJ is below the Levis store opposite Café Zouk.
reviewed
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Thai Seafood
Stepping into the icy air of this modern restaurant is delicious, and the food almost matches. The menu has a wide range of Thai and Chinese dishes, with an excellent value three-course set menu for Rs299. Service is a bit fussy without actually being brilliant, and waiters sometimes insist on bringing all three courses at once. Steamed squid with lemon grass and the fish cakes with chilli are winners.
reviewed
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Evolution
Evolution remains one of the cooler places to eat - and be seen - in Karachi. It's popular with the sons and daughters of Karachi's upper-crust families. Evolution only serves a buffet at lunch but has an 'around-the-world' à la carte theme at dinner, with Pakistani, Italian, Thai, Continental and Japanese dishes. You name it, they've probably offered it. Good food in classy surroundings.
reviewed
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O
Bundu Khan
With other branches in Lahore, Bundu Khan cooks up piquant Pakistani cuisine with menu items including a tasty mutton tikka and, for the more adventurous, brain masala. There's also a few non-Pakistani alternatives such as beef burgers and chicken corn soup. During lunchtime this branch mainly deals in takeaway, but in the evening diners can avail of tables and chairs set up outside.
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Lala's Grill
Part of Green's Hotel, this is a welcome place to eat if you're craving clean cutlery and tablecloths. The menu sticks to standards along the Pakistani-Chinese-Continental axis, and the waiters agreeably tell you what the chef has just been cooking if you want to eat quickly or what needs to be prepared from scratch (usually the Continental dishes) if you're in no rush.
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Salt'n'Pepper
Recommended for its tasty Pakistani and Continental cuisine, this restaurant is a welcome retreat from the frenetic streets. A top seller is the boneless chicken handi (chicken dunked in a tomato based gravy). Or perhaps a club sandwich and slice of apple pie will suffice. Salt'n'Pepper has several branches in Lahore. Reservations are recommended on weekends.
reviewed